


Thomas at Kmart #2

by angryessays



Series: Thomas at Kmart [2]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Kmart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 06:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4253472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angryessays/pseuds/angryessays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second installment of the Thomas at Kmart series. Fun abounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thomas at Kmart #2

Every bench was piled high. All six. The department had been unattended for exactly thirteen hours, split over two days in the middle of the week, towards the end of the month with no holidays. The floor was littered with shoes and hangers. One fifth of the shoes in boxes were gone. Thomas began the arduous process of putting it all back together again.

  
He slowly picked up everything that would be considered a safety hazard. He started loading up a cart with the loose shoes and hangers, leaving the large stacks of boxes behind as he didn't have enough room in one cart for both. He went to work collecting and replacing all the shoes people had shoved where they don't belong. Then he finally loaded up all the shoe boxes and began putting them back wherever he could fit them. Admittedly, he allowed some things to stay out of place and took several unnecessary smoke breaks out of sheer apathy for this type of work, as well as the fact he had no one to hold him accountable. And yet he still got more work done than half of his coworkers.

  
He was paged to call the service desk, only to be told there was a "mountain of shoes" there that hadn't been "brought back" yet. There weren't enough pairs of shoes in the cart he found to overlap each other, or even cover the bottom. Thomas couldn't help but be envious of the service desk associate's _naïveté_. He also wondered once again if anyone actually _looked_ at the shoe department when they walked by, or if they had eyes at all. Perhaps they did see what they put him and his single coworker through and were simply mocking them.

  
When he went through the break room to get a drink of water--from the fountain, since he wasn't allowed to be caught with a beverage on the floor--all the managers on duty, four of the sales leads, and a few associates were all taking their breaks at the same time. Why was anyone surprised that Sears Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries were failing miserably, except in selling real estate? He made a swift retreat.

  
On his way to throw out yet another pair of used shoes a shoplifter left behind, Thomas was told to help cover jewelry as they somehow ended up with only one other person working in apparel for the night, again. He agreed, of course, but noted that everyone only considered footwear a part of apparel when they needed him to do something for them--when footwear gets complimented by the GM for its success, however, they all get angry and force him to cover everything at once. Thomas threw away the shoes and washed his hands.

  
Not five minutes later, he was paged to call the office only to be asked a second time, by his direct supervisor, if he would help cover jewelry. He agreed again. He didn't understand why they bother asking when he can't say no.

  
"If you get done straightening in shoes, you could go through and straighten women's beachwear," she added.

  
Thomas held back a laugh. _'Get done.' How ridiculous._

  
He went through the section anyway and found it already pristine, for Kmart standards, so he returned to footwear. The customers had managed to leave two entire hooks full of women's flats on the floor. He checked to make sure the hook hadn't simply fallen off as they often do; it hadn't. He kneeled on the floor and replaced them, awkwardly trying to ignore the woman in the aisle with him. At least she wasn't an attractive man.

**Author's Note:**

> lol SHC probably wouldn't want me talking about their ~real estate success~.


End file.
